Home > Lessons > Holidays > Chanukah > Chanukah 5785 > A short Chanukah Insight Part 2: Dealing with dangers that destroy us from within
During Chanukah, the mesiras nefesh of war was needed when encountering the ruchniyus disease of Hellenistic assimilation. This is because in ruchniyus we build from that which is pure and clean, no matter how small. To do this personally we must uncover the pure Judaism within us and rebuild from there.
A short Chanukah Insight Part 2: Dealing with dangers that destroy us from within
Misyavnim (Jewish converters to Hellenism)
Chanukah marked a pivotal moment in Jewish history—the first time we, as a people, faced an auto-immune disease of ruchniyus. It was the first instance where Jews converted en masse to a different way of life, embracing the Hellenistic values and practices of the Greeks. These Jews rejected the essence of Jewish living, declaring it to be the wrong path.
When a person suffers from a physical auto-immune disease, the treatment involves lowering the immune response to prevent vital organs from being harmed. But in the realm of ruchniyus—the spiritual health of the Jewish nation—the Chashmonaim taught us that the response must be the opposite. They demonstrated the necessity of mesiras nefesh (self-sacrifice), refusing to adopt a stance of coexistence which would say, “Let’s simply focus on unity, even if Torah observance is abandoned. The main thing is that we’re all Jewish.”
The Chashmonaim understood that the Jewish people must be rooted in Torah and mitzvos. In the physical body, every organ is vital to survival, and we lower the immune response to prevent the loss of any organ. But in ruchniyus, a small, pure remnant is the whole thing and an entire nation can be rebuilt from that small but pure force. By identifying and returning to a single, untainted aspect of our Judaism, we can rebuild our entire spiritual existence. This is unique to ruchniyus—where purity in one area can serve as a foundation for everything.
Chanukah thus calls on us to confront the influences of external cultures that may erode our identity. Our response must be to rediscover, within ourselves, the values and concepts of Judaism upon which to build our whole life. With this clarity, we can build our entire ruchniyus on a small pure part that we uncover. This can never occur in the body when each organ is vital to the body as a whole.
Now we see the depth of the tefila “rabim b’yad miatim” (many fell to the hands of the few) because in ruchniyus, a few, as long as they are clean and pure, that is the main thing!